In case you’re scratching your head wondering what I’m talking about, “Flubber” originated from Disney’s 1961 film The Absent-Minded Professor (I’m not sure that I’ve even seen the movie, but I’m familiar with the storyline!).

My children were totally stoked about this project. Getting to play with slimy goop? Yes, please, bring it on!

They were highly motivated to finish their chores and to-do lists for the day in order to get make Flubber (or “icky” as Silas dubbed it!) And they all loved making it.

Our first batch flopped because we didn’t completely dissolve the glue in the water. But we still got some slimy goo from it that children thought was very cool.

The second batch actually looked like it was supposed to. And everyone had a blast playing with it.

The only problem was that 3-year-old Silas got a little “into “it and started flinging it on the wall and letting it drip all down the front of him.

So my advice to you moms is: if you decide to try this recipe, do it during naptime or when your really young ones are otherwise occupied. Or, let them play with it outside in old play clothes and then let everyone have a water fight afterward to clean themselves off. 🙂

Homemade Flubber Recipe

1 1/2 cups warm water, divided

1 teaspoon Borax

1 4-oz. bottle glue (we used both Elmer’s glue and cheap off-brand glue and both seemed to work well)

food coloring

Dissolve Borax in 1/2 cup warm water. Set bowl aside.

In another bowl, pour the entire bottle of glue into one cup warm water, add a few drops of food color, and completely mix together. Mixture should resemble a thin paste with no globs of glue still intact.

Pour Borax mixture over glue mixture. Start stirring and it should immediately begin turning into a slimy mixture.

Once it’s mixed together and resembles slime, allow your children to have fun with it — preferably outside or at the kitchen table.

Store leftover Flubber in a ziptop bag for up to two weeks.

Note: Adult supervision at all times is a must with this recipe as Borax is toxic. Check the comments for other non-toxic alternatives.

We had so much fun on Sunday at our local Minor League Baseball Game! $14 for all 5 of us. My husband made a great video of our time there which I posted on my blog. Looking forward to being “intentional” with our fun this summer. Thanks for this series Crystal!

I remember making flubber back when my kids were in preschool. A fun activity to do “at preschool.” 🙂

Our frugal activity this week was blueberry picking. My kids and I went to a farm only 10 minutes from our house. We picked 4 1/2 pounds of blueberries in about 1 hour. The total cost was $9 which actually came out of my food budget! The farm even had some pet goats the kids could pet.

When we got home we made blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins. My daughter attempted blueberry slushies, but they were a bit tart. Overall, it was a fun day for very little money.

With hubby off on Fridays during the summer, we go on family outings. Today, we ate a big breakfast, visited a local zoo (from a previously purchased LivingSocial deal – $20), and snagged the new Oreo cookie sandwiches from Hardee’s (using a coupon, of course!). We had a great time together for a total cost of $26.82 for our family of 5.

Looking forward to more activities from this series. Keep up the messy fun, Crystal!

We visited the local public library for the second time this week….stocked up on books, videos, music cds and books on cd.

About 8 years ago my youngest came home from preschool with a portion of Flubber. I can no longer recall the exact sequence of events, but I did learn that if the house key will not insert into the lock at all, check for dried Flubber and then proceed to pick it all out with something skinny and sharp. What WAS the child thinking?!

That’s the only reason I couldn’t do this project at this point – my toddler-almost-3-year-old is still in the stage of eating playdough, and I don’t want to risk him accidentally ingesting Borax :). Bookmarked for a future project, though, to be sure!

Crystal, can you see me bowing down to you over here? Can you see me???
I love that you did this. I just could never do it. I think my blood pressure would go through the roof. Now, on the other hand, my 12 yr old daughter would LOVE to do this with her siblings. So maybe I should let her do it while I am gone somewhere? LOL!!
I am the “let’s read a book together” kind of mom. I am getting brave and letting them cook without me lately though.

Next time for silas make him a mix of corn starch and water. Not to much water. It melts from the heat of your hand. If it drops some where you just let it dry and sweep or vacume it up. DONT use food coloring.

Not the same thing but somewhat similar, we make oobleck in my classroom every year and the kids absolutely love it! However, we don’t use food coloring unless I have gloves to wear… I prefer to not have dyed hands for days afterwards 🙂

That looks like tons of fun and I loved that movie when I was a kid! I also love seeing what others are doing 🙂 We did groovin’ grapes and shaving cream painting (who hasn’t? but so fun!). I linked above. Thanks to everyone for your ideas!

We did a scavenger hunt with camera. The kids had fun taking picture of items on there list. We also got to watch a butterfly/moth come out of the its little cocoon today, we have been waiting all winter and I am so glad we got to see it happen.

My husband and I had a little dirt left over from when we put in our raised bed gardens this year. We decided to put the extra in the back yard. My mother in law bought our girls a handful of little sand/dirt toys. Our girls absolutely LOVE to play with the toys in the dirt! Keeps them busy, and learning for quite a while 🙂

Slime is a bunch of fun, but if you have kids under 5 (or those who might put their hands in their mouths) you should use Liquid Starch instead of the Borax solution. It’s safer for the kids. Also, you can use washable paint instead of food coloring.

Another fun option is to use clear glue instead of white glue. Makes it look more like slime than putty.

Also, you want the putty or slime to set about an hour before playing with it, then pour out any remaining liquid and it will be WAY less messy.

We really enjoy playing with this!! One fun thing to do with it is to put it in a large-ish bowl, get an upside-down bendy straw, cover it in flubber, and blow to make bubbles and noises. I try to avoid getting it on clothes because I have a hard time getting it out.

Have you made oobleck? It’s a combination of water and cornstarch. Not sure of the amounts but I’m sure it’s online somewhere. When you mix it right it looks solid, but when you try to pick it up, it turns to liquid.

I would love to try this but my kids would never touch it! LOL. we got out our cardboard bricks and they played angry birds using stuffed toys. they even got to use empty milkjugs that were headed to the recycle! we all had a blast. they even let their 16month old sister in on the action.
then we made chocolate chip cookie.

No they don’t. The post where we are stationed at does a great job at planning family activities. In May they had a mother-son dance; June, Father-daughter dance; July- Mother-Daughter tea. On weekend afternoons the bowling alley onpost isn’t busy so they offer $1 bowling for adults and kids under 10 bowl free. We also have free miniature golf onpost. We are very fortunate to have so many great activities to do cheaply. One of these days I’ll start my own blog about our adventures over here.

We didn’t do something particularly frugal today, but this past week I used our annual pass to a new children’s discovery museum and spent over 3 hrs. there. Sometimes an annual pass can seem expensive, but for us, we can go at least 1x week, so it only works out to $1.50 per visit for our whole family.

We’ve asked for passes for Christmas gifts some years and that’s been so fun. I’ve also found a few really great deals for memberships to local places on Groupon! If you use memberships regularly, they can be a wonderful deal!

I used to babysit all of the time 🙂 I taught the girls how to write by using puddung and a cookie sheet. Of course I made sure they were wearing play clothes and their hair was back. I would make their favorite pudding & put a layer of it on the cookie sheet. We practiced everything we could think of. If they made a mistake it was very easy to fix. We would practice each letter of the alphabet. It amazd me how quickly they learned. I believe it was due to the fact, that they thought we were just playing. They could both write before they went to kindergarten 🙂 The girls are now 13 & 15. The last time I was back home they both came up to me and gave me a big hug. I miss them. However this is 1 of the many wonderful memories I have with them 😉

Thanks for the recipes Crystal! I made this today with my twin four year olds and 19 month old. The baby was scared of the flubber and wanted nothing to do with it. The boys loved it! It thickened quite nicely and was a solid but pliable mass. They spread it all over their matchbox cars, and said “Look at the accident, mommy”! Thankfully it washed off , too.

We had a blast today going to the opening of the farmers market downtown. It’s very close to one of our outdoor malls so afterwards we walked over to look at the chalk art festival and get an ice cream cone!

I just posted an article I wrote last year about creating your Drive-In, (I hope that is OK since it isn’t recent.) I loved going to the drive-in as a child but I find the prices these days just way to expensive. So we created our own drive-in in our backyard and the kids love it!